


Hated in the Nation

by Sheriffsregina



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst, F/F, Government Conspiracy, Murder, Smut, Warning: Donald Trump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 10:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15816744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheriffsregina/pseuds/Sheriffsregina
Summary: An AU inspired by the Black Mirror episode, Hated in the Nation, season three episode six. Regina is a detective and works with her partner, a tech-savvy blonde named Emma, to stop puzzling murders linked to a hashtag on social media.





	Hated in the Nation

_ August 22nd, 9:33AM, New York Supreme Court  _

Regina Mills was sitting outside the courtroom picking at a paper cup filled with stale coffee. She hadn’t slept since she and Emma saw the bodies, paranoid that they’d be next, that her son would be next. Emma told her that this wasn’t normal, that something else happened. God how she wish she had believed her then, maybe they’d still be together, safe, maybe parents would have their children, maybe wives would still have their husbands, maybe the nation wouldn’t be crumbling in on themselves. But that’s not the beginning of this story, the beginning happened nearly three months ago on May 15th. 

 

_ May 15th, 9:47PM, Apartment of Regina Mills _

“President Donald Trump has defended the government’s stance on disability benefits, despite the outrage over the death of ‘Wheelchair Martyr’ Gwen Marbury-”

Click.

“More than twenty thousand people have signed a petition demanding the sacking of newspaper columnist, Mallory Draco, following her controversial article about Gwen Ma-”

Click.

“Conservationists have announced another extinction. The Siberian Crane has died out following an unprecedented reduction in its wetland ha-”

Click.

“-and the honey bee-mimicking drone insects known as ADIs have been activated for their second summer, the-”

Click.

Regina huffed as she set down her salad to look at her buzzing phone.

“Detective Mills. Okay where is the crime scene? Wait, do you mean  _ the  _ Mallory Draco? The one who’s being slandered on every social media outlet? O-Okay, I’ll be right there- a shadow? Really? What’s her name? Emma. Well, I’ll be sure to look out for her.”

Regina rushed to her twelve year old son’s room and kissed his head. 

“Hey my little prince, momma’s gonna be gone for maybe two hours but you have Aunt Z’s number on the fridge mkay?”

“Okay Mom. Go be a superhero.”

Henry kissed her cheek and Regina smiled as she watched her son drift back to sleep and quietly left his room.

 

_ May 15th, 10:12PM, House of Mallory Draco _

Regina stalked towards the crime scene, successfully avoiding hungry news reporters and ducking under the caution tape. She heard someone jogging behind her and turned around to face a blonde woman come to a skittish stop and nearly slip trying to reach the brunette. 

“Hi Detective Mills, I’m Emma Swan.”

A beat. 

“Your shadow.”

Emma held a hand out to try and shake the older woman’s hand, but Regina just quirked her eyebrow and warily took the younger girl’s hand and shook it.

“Yes Miss Swan I know who you are. Have you ever seen a dead body?”

Emma’s eyebrows jumped into her hairline as she stumbled over her words.

“Um-yeah a few.”

Emma chuckled. Regina did not.

“Online, you’re not the joke making type are you?”

“I’m the working type Miss Swan.”

Regina walked into the living room and quickly into the kitchen to see that the victim had her throat slashed and was laying on the ground. Blood was splattered along the wall and it looked like her head was smashed against the island in the kitchen. Detective Rogers had arrived earlier and was already taking notes.

“Oh my god.”

Emma turned away as she saw the body and tried not to vomit. Regina came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“First one’s always tough, if you need to step out it’s okay.”

Emma shook her head and took a steadying breath as she rolled her shoulders back and stood up straight. 

“I’m good, just wasn’t expecting so much blood.”

Regina squeezed her shoulder and went back to bend down towards the body. The victim had blonde hair that was matted and caked in dry blood. Her light grey sweater was now a dark red from the blood that oozed down her neck and there was a broken wine bottle with the contents spilled on the rug next to her body. After a minute Regina heard Emma walk behind her and over to Mallory’s computer.

“Hey Reg, there’s security cameras by the front door.

“Got the code for them?”

“Yeah taking them to your office now.”

Regina and Rogers graduated from the academy together, they had been friends for years and while most would assume that they had some sort of sexual chemistry together, neither one had any desire to sleep with the other, in fact, they were practically siblings. Regina walked over to a cake with a slice taken out of it. 

“Oh what a lovely cake, ‘Fucking Bitch’ in cursive, bag that and send it to Toxicology.”

Rogers nodded and walked out of the room.

“Umm, Detective Mills? You’re gonna want to look at this.”

Regina walked over to Emma and pressed up against the blonde. Emma took a sharp inhale of breath as the brunette noticed that she was on Mallory’s twitter page and it seemed as if the writer was getting a lot of hate even after death. 

“There’s a lot of death threats and hate mail being sent towards her.”

Regina had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at the younger woman.

“Yes, internet threats, most of which don’t mean anything. We’re going to question the husband, whose at the hospital right now. Now come along.”

Emma sighed and looked back towards the computer before following Regina out the door.

 

“Miss Swan these things are always either domestic, drugs, or alcohol. It is what it is.”

Regina waited for the blonde to speak but she never did.

“Look I’m just saying that the chances of this being a crazed twitter user is very slim and I think, as your boss, the best use of our resources is questioning the husband and then we will go from there.”

Emma nodded, but she couldn’t help that sinking feeling that something else was going on. She began to turn away and walked towards the sidewalk when Regina called back to her.

“Miss Swan, do you not have a car?”

“Nah, my little bug broke down and now I’m waiting for those self driving cars.”

“Get in.”

Emma shook her head.

“No honestly, I’ll just get an Uber-”

“Get. In.”

Regina’s voice sent a shiver down her spine and like magic, she did exactly what she asked.

 

“So what made you leave Tech Crime? Get bored of it?”

Emma looked over at the older woman.

“Um no, not exactly, you’ve seen what people put on their phones. Mass murder schemes, kill lists, kiddy porn. It’s not boring. People nowadays tuck everything into these little devices. These things know who we are.”

Regina quirked her eyebrow up.

“If it’s so interesting, why leave it?”

Regina wasn’t sure what about the blonde intrigues her, but there’s something hidden behind those green eyes she wants to find so she can’t help but pry the information out of her. Emma looked down and tried to keep her voice as steady as possible.

“The Rannoch case.”

Regina’s eyes went wide as she forced herself to keep her eyes on the road.

“Ian Rannoch? The child killings?”

Emma nodded as she willed herself to continue.

“I was the one who cracked his souvenir folder, saw all the pictures and videos, every second, every pixel of them.”

Regina finally looked over at the blonde and saw that her eyes went hazy and she was going back to that time and her hand shot out to cover the younger woman’s.

“You see something like that and it changes you, you either quit everything or you just say ‘Fuck it. I have to stop this.’ I chose the ‘Fuck it’ option.”

Emma sadly smiled over at Regina and looked down at their hands and slowly pulled away. 

“Well on behalf of all mothers out there, thank you Emma.”

Emma realized that was the first time Regina had ever called her by her first name and she loved it.

They moved onto lighter subjects as Regina pulled into Emma’s apartment parking lot and blonde curls hopped out.

“See you tomorrow Miss Swan.”

Emma smiled at the brunette and saluted her and told her that she would and walked off. Regina smiled and shook her head as she watched the blonde enter her building. 

 

_ May 16th, 6:22AM, Apartment of Emma Swan _

Emma was never an early riser, on normal days, she would do anything just for five more minutes inside her warm, cozy bed, but today was not a normal day. At exactly 6:00AM Emma hopped out of bed and took her shower and now was promptly sliding through the hallway in her socks to catch the early morning news and eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast before Regina picked her up for work. As she turned on her TV she noticed that it was all about a popular producer making fun of a kid dancing, Jack Branon . 

“Popular movie producer Jack Branon is now under the media’s scrutiny after last night’s episode of ‘Late Night with Tink’ where the ‘Candy Man’, as his fans called him, began to criticize the dance moves of a young fan from a movie Mr. Branon directed last year.”

Emma shook her head as the television showed how Jack called the little boy awful derogatory names and the child cried on national television. Just then she heard her phone ringing and realized Regina was outside so she trotted past the gate and hopped into the brunette’s car.

 

_ May 16th, 7:22AM, Office of Detectives Regina Mills and Killian Rogers _

Emma had made it her personal mission to make Regina laugh, on their way to HQ, she had learned that Regina had a twelve year old son named Henry and that he was her entire world. Regina had told her a story of something Henry did when he was a baby but, for the life of her, she just couldn’t remember it because of the way Regina laughed and that’s all she could think about. Emma loved her laugh. It made her feels things in her belly and brought her own smile upon her face. Emma was scrolling through twitter at Mallory’s notifications when Regina came up behind her.

“Mallory’s husband came out of his coma. Let’s go.”

Emma jumped up and slammed her laptop down, but the brunette already knew what she was up to. 

 

_May 16th, 10:08AM,_ _Grey_ _-_ _Sloan_ _Memorial_ _Hospital_

“Okay Miss Swan, let’s just interview the guy and get out, I hate this place.”

Emma chuckled as she nudged Regina’s side

“You hate the hospital?”

Regina gave her a cold stare as the blonde shrank down and followed the brunette into Mr. Draco’s room. She wasn’t sure what she did exactly to make the brunette suddenly turn cold, but she never wanted to face that stare again. They entered the room and found Mr. Draco lying on the bed facing the ceiling with tears in his eyes. 

“Mr. Draco? My name is Detective Mills, we’ve come to ask you a few questions about the other night.”

Mr. Draco slowly nodded his head as he met the older woman’s eyes. 

“She came home and had cake, and I told her not to eat it but she did anyways, and I went to take a bath and was laying on my bed reading when I heard her start screaming. I ran into our room and she-“

The older man started to sob as Emma felt a wave of empathy hit her as she took his hand and squeezed softly. 

“Mr. Draco I know this is very hard, and we’re very sorry, but we need to know what happened.”

Mr. Draco sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm down and he steadily inhaled. 

“She killed herself. Broke a wine bottle and sliced at her head. I tried to stop her and I grabbed at her but then she stabbed me, right here in the chest and then the gut.”

Mr. Draco pointed at his chest showing the small slices surrounding the white gauze. 

“I fell over and watched her slice her own throat.”

With the last word he broke down again and this time it took everything in Emma to not cry with him. Emma went to look over at her boss and the woman’s face was stoic. She seemed to have no emotions whatsoever and was slightly nodding to the horrific story, most likely trying to find some sort of inconsistency. She stalked over to the man and squeezed his shoulder thanking him for telling her the story and promptly walked out. Emma hurried after her asking if she believed him. 

“Well, autopsy shows that Mallory indeed did slice her own neck. I just don’t understand why exactly.”

Emma pondered for a few moments.

“Maybe it has something to do with the cake, did you ever get back the results from the Toxicology lab?”

Regina looked pleased, the blonde learned quick and was hopping onto a new lead, she flashed a smile over to Emma’s way and told her that she hadn’t, but she did get an email back from the bakery that delivered the cake and said it came from a woman named Jacinda who worked at Henry’s old elementary school.

 

_ May 16th, 11:57AM, Granny’s Diner _

“So Detective Mills, do you want to tell me what happened back there?”

Regina picked at her food as and then looked up at the emerald eyes cautiously watching her own. 

“Nothing happened Miss Swan, I just am not a fan of hospitals.”

Emma was never one to back down from a conversation, she was too curious, and too infactuated to stop herself.

“Is there a reason why? You don’t have to talk about it, I just thought that if we’re going to keep working together in the future we could become aquantinces or friends, or whatever I don’t know.”

Regina smiled at the blonde’s way of giving her an out, she knew she had upset her ealier and she didn’t mean to, but that’s where Daniel died. 

“My friend died here. It’s not really something I want to talk about.”

Emma placed her hand on Regina’s and tried to send her condolences, but the brunette just shook it off, telling her it was okay and that she remembers how strong he was, they both looked down at their hands, neither wanting to seperate the connection, eventually Emma pulled back once the waitress was back with their drinks. Emma moved onto  happier subjects, which the bruenette was eternally grateful for.

 

_ May 16th, 1:30PM, Jacinda’s Workplace _

“Hello Miss Glass do you have a moment to spare?”

“May I ask who it is?”

The darker skinned woman with wide eyes smiled at the two women until she saw them flash their badges and leading them over to some chairs where they could sit.

“We’re here to ask you some questions about Mrs. Draco’s passing and a cake you sent her on the day she died that had some vulgar language. Care to comment on that?”

“Oh that”

The younger woman nervously chuckled as she tried to desperately break the tension quickly rising in the room. 

“She was an awful person so me and some of my girlfriends pitched in to buy it and send it. You know how it goes.”

Emma and Regina looked at each other, neither of them knowing ‘how it goes’. Until Emma piped up and asked a question she knew her boss wouldn’t like. 

“You also sent a tweet out the day before she died that said ‘hashtag death to Mallory Draco’, that’s considered a threat, why would you say that?”

Jacinda scoffed, she couldn’t believe these women would think that she actually wanted the woman to die. 

“It’s just a hashtag. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s like a game, you use the hashtag and add the person who deserves the hate, and she more than deserved it.”

Regina tilted her head, shocked that a woman, who was supposed to be a kind considering she was an elementary school teacher, could say such a horrible thing about another person. Regina looked over at Emma who wore the same look on her face. 

“Well Miss Glass, we’re gonna need the names of the other women who helped pitch in for the cake.”

“And what if I don’t give them.”

Emma finally understood why some of Regina’s coworkers called her the Evil Queen. The look Regina gave the younger woman could kill her 

“Because if you don’t I’ll have Miss Swan arrest you for stalking and harassment. Sending death threats and a cake with obscene words, that could get you about three to five years in jail if you don’t go to trial and if you do I can add some more crimes up and get you ten to fifteen years, your pick dear.”

Emma had to contain the smile trying to break from her face. Regina had backed the woman into a corner and got her to do exactly what she wanted and it made the blonde want to kiss her. 

“Miss Swan, arrest this woman please.”

“Okay! Fine! I’ll email the names to you once my class is gone.”

Regina plastered on her fakest smile and thanked the woman and turned without saying another word. Emma quickly followed her out of the school. 

 

_ May 16th, 7:39PM, Apartment of Emma Swan _

Emma was led to her bedroom by a beautiful brunette, her mouth was on her pale neck and she seemed determined to leave a mark there. Emma pulled at the woman’s top and started backing her way to her bed. She fell backwards as the raven haired woman lifted her shirt and Emma went and grabbed the generous sized globes. She licked at her nipples and sucked one into her mouth. Fingers went and pulled at the blonde curls holding her steady.

“Miss Swan.”

Emma chuckled.

“You know you don’t have to call me that in here Regina.”

“Emma wake up.”

“What”

Emma sprang up to the brunette of her dreams, otherwise known as Regina Mills, her boss, standing over here coaxing her to wake up. 

“Are you okay, dear? You seemed flushed.”

Emma shook her head and looked to see that the brunette was holding onto her arm and her heart rate quickened.   
“Yeah yeah I’m fine, what are you doing in my apartment?”

Regina straightened up and informed her that the ‘key under the mat’ wasn’t a very good place to hide her spare along with the fact that Jack Branon was pronounced dead and that Dr. Whale has found a connection to his death to the murder of Mallory Draco.

“Okay can this wait till tomorrow boss? I’m really tired and their dead bodies will still be dead tomorrow morning.”

Regina smiled softly down at her and accepted. She stood to leave when Emma realized she didn’t want her to go.

“Umm are you- are you hungry? Do you want me to cook dinner?”

Regina cocked her head to the side and looked at the blonde, actually looked at her and then smiled and told her that she’d love that. She told her that Henry was staying the night at her sister’s so she didn’t need to rush home to him. Emma hopped up and made her way over to the kitchen. 

Emma pulled out spaghetti noodles and tomato sauce when Regina came up behind her.

“Is there anything I can help with Emma?”

Emma blushed as she poured the noodles into the boiling water and turned the stove down.

“Umm if you want to get the plates and forks out and I have some wine in the cupboard if you want some.”

Regina nodded as she got everything out and poured wine for herself and Emma, while the blonde stirred the noodles.

“So Miss Swan, where did you grow up?”

“Umm a little bit of everywhere, New Jersey, New York, Maine, and then I went to the academy for NYPD and worked my way up.”

Emma shrugged and she hoped the brunette woman would soon change the subject.

“Huh, interesting.”

Regina felt that the blonde was hiding something, something about why she moved around so much. She didn’t know why, but she wanted to know everything about the blonde, what her parents were like, what made her laugh, what made her cry, absolutely everything. 

“Why did you and your family move around so much?”

Emma was placing the noodles on their plates as Regina sat down and poured the sauces on their own, she hoped that she could just shrink at that moment and pretend that she had a father that with a high demanding job or that her mom just liked changes in scenery and wanted to explore, but the truth was much more darker than that and she couldn’t lie to her. 

“Oh, I um-I grew up in foster care, so I hopped around a lot, not a big deal.”

Regina looked up and saw the blonde looking at the floor, ashamed of where she came from and embarrassed to tell her boss. Regina sat down and looked at Emma, really looked at her. 

“Emma you don’t need to be embarrassed for something you couldn’t help.”

Emma nodded, desperate to change the subject and get the spotlight off of her. After that, they moved to much lighter topics. They clicked very well and soon Regina shared a story about Henry, and then Emma felt bold enough to ask about his father, she was only slightly hoping that the brunette turned out to be gay, and not at all for selfish reasons. 

“Henry’s father, Daniel, passed away the day Henry was born. We were going to celebrate my birthday and a car came out of nowhere and he died on the scene. It was the worst day of my life.”

Regina looked away with a hint of sorrow in her eyes, but she refused to cry in front of her shadow. This happened twelve years ago, it was painful but she had moved on, and she wasn’t going to let that sob story ruin the perfect evening she was having with a beautiful woman. 

“Oh Regina, I’m so sorry.”

Regina shook her head and told her not to worry about it, then she noticed that the blonde woman was holding her hand, and what was worse was that Regina really liked it. Regina smiled at the younger woman and a crimson color rushed to her cheeks as the two women looked into each other’s eyes. Emma rubbed her thumb along the brunette’s index finger, she felt lost in those whiskey colored eyes, they held so much in them. She could easily see the passion behind them, strength and beauty, regalness and grace. Brown, quickly became her favorite eye color. 

While Emma was getting lost in brown eyes, Regina was getting lost in golden hair. She loved how the blonde curls spiraled down past her shoulders. It showed how crazy Emma’s life had been, and yet it was still beautiful. They were long and shiny and smelt a bit like cinnamon and home. Regina Mills was not-so-slowly falling in love with the blonde curls. 

Emma wasn’t blind, she could also see the blatantly obvious sexy body in front of her. Regina Mills was slightly shorter than herself, her arms were obviously toned, as were her legs, and good  _ God _ those legs made Emma sin. From the arch of her calf all the way up her thighs, Emma fantasized about how it would feel to have those thighs clasped around her face. Her olive skin tone mixed with her darker features made Emma’s mouth water, the thought of biting that perfect bottom lip and soothing it with her tongue and then licking up to that sexy scar sent a shiver down Emma’s spine. She could just see Regina arching up into her when she pinched a nipple and sucked the other into her mouth, or how she’d moan out her name and that would make Emma come undone right there. As much as Emma loved to ogle Regina, Regina enjoyed it more. Regina could almost taste the blonde, she wanted to scrap her nails down her long, pale, muscular back. She wanted to bite and suck at Emma’s neck until it turned purple and everyone knew that Emma Swan was hers. She wanted to taste the perky, pink nipples the blonde was hiding because Regina just knew they were a light pink. She wanted to pull the blonde’s hair and make her moan out her name over and over and over again until that’s the only word she knew and after she had all the dirty sex her heart desired, she wanted to sleep next to her, to listen to her heart and smell the sweat and cinnamon on her body. As much as Regina wanted to fuck Emma, she knew that she cared about her too much to let the blonde get attached and then just, leave. She couldn’t do that to her, she didn’t want to lose her friendship because despite the fact that she’s only known the blonde for a few days, she already trusts her more than she trusts anyone. 

Their silent gawk soon fizzled out and Regina announced she needed to head home. She thanked Emma for dinner and the blonde told her she enjoyed it and would love to ‘chill’ more, causing the brunette to chuckle. Regina gave a kiss to Emma’s cheek and walked out the door. Emma slid down the door with the biggest grin on her face that didn’t leave her the rest of the night, little did she know that Regina was sitting in her car with the same smile radiating off of her. 

 

_ May 17th, 11:02AM, Dr. Whale’s Autopsy Room _

“So you’re telling me, one of those ‘people spying government bees’ flew into her ear?”

Emma was speechless, in all the crime shows she watched, all the detective novels she read, and all the conspiracy theory videos she heard about, not once did she ever think she’d be living one. The government bees, or ADIs as they’re more commonly called, had gone rogue and flown into the Draco house and found its way into Mallory. Emma shuddered at the thought.

“How painful is it?”

Dr. Whale’s face grew solemn.

“It is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through, she would’ve been desperate to make it stop, ending her own life would’ve been a blessing.”

Regina turned away, feeling a little ill at the thought that a robot insect could crawl into a person and make them want to end their lives so bad due to the pain.

“And what about Jack? You said they’re connected.”

Dr. Whale nodded as the trio walked over to another room with another body laying on the slab.

“When medics reached Mr. Branon, he was screaming and writhing in pain, they sedated him and once they brought him to the hospital, they put him in a MRI, which pulls out anything metal, well once he was put in there, an ADI shot out of his eye socket and my reports show that it was another ADI.

Emma and Regina were horrified at the revelation. This was no longer a coincidence or a one-time malfunction, these were now serial murders.

“We need to get to Granular Project, that’s the place where they make the bees.”

 

_ May 17th, 12:52PM, The Granular Project Location Site _

Emma and Regina walked into the huge grey building with the bee logo plastered at the top, they walked through the glass doors and were met with hundreds of bees swarming the lobby to form the logo for the company. The blonde met the brunette’s eyes as they continued walking towards the front where they were met by Mary Margaret Blanchard, now Nolan. A petite woman with short pixie cut hair and a huge smile.

“Are you Regina Mills?”

Regina nodded her head and introduced her to Emma.

The trio walked around what looked like to be a green house plant, thousands of the robot-insects were flying around, pollinating flowers. 

“So Detective Mills, are you here on official business or here to learn about the fascinating ways we keep our beautiful country alive with our ADIs.”

“Business, Miss Nolan.”

“Can I ask what business?”

Mary Margaret’s sickening sweet voice made Emma want to hurl. 

“No.”

And with that, Regina kept walking with a smug look on her face, she liked pushing the girl’s buttons and Emma knew it, she smiled at the scientist and kept walking. There were rows and rows of flowers of all different colors and styles, plants were heaping over the aisles and there seemed to be millions of the tiny bees buzzing around them, making their way into their hives. Soon, they came across a tall man making notes on a piece of paper and Mary Margaret stopped in front of him.

“David”

The woman smiled at him as David looked up.

“This is David Nolan, he’s head of Swarm and my husband.”

David smiled and shook both Emma and Regina’s hands. Regina spoke next as she wanted to cut to the chase and get out of their as soon as possible. 

“So these ADIs, talk me through them, why we need them and how exactly do they work?”

David nodded.

“There was a colony collapse about two years ago, bees themselves were basically extinct so what these ADIs do is stand in their place, they pollinate the earth, spreading pollen from flowers and plants all over the United States. They’re solar powered and they don’t need nectar.”

Regina nodded along watching with fascination as the bees made there way around, going straight to one object and not another, peaking another question in the senior detective’s brain. 

“How do they know where the flowers even are?”

“Well they have a sensor.”

Emma shot a glance towards Regina and the older woman squinted her eyes, it seemed the two women both were coming to the same conclusion. Someone was hacking the bees and using this sensor, or camera to kill people. This is when Emma decided to join the conversation.

“Like, a camera.”

David shook his head and tried to correct himself.   
“Well no, not exactly just basic shapes, the ADIs need elemental pattern recognition in order to locate compatible flowers and navigate.”

Regina stepped closer to the man and stared him down, affectively intimidating him. 

“So you mean  _ they _ navigate, you don’t just, steer them yourself?”

Emma remembered an article she had read about the bees a couple months ago and decided to answer Regina herself.

“They’re autonomous, they make their own decisions and look after themselves.”

David nodded at the blonde and went to explain himself to the older woman.

“That’s correct, see the ADIs cover the entirety of the United States, we couldn’t possibly command each one individually, it’s logistially impossible. They even construct these hives themselves.”

David pointed to the hexagon-shaped hive with a couple dozen bees crawling in and out of it. Emma continued to explain to Regina all she knew about the bees. 

“Inside each hive is something like a 3D printer where they duplicate themselves.”

Mary Margaret looked impressed by the blonde and commented on it, telling her that maybe she should work there as well.

“Yeah well I’ve read up on it, it’s impressive.”

Regina agreed, slightly nodding her head. 

“It’s just a shame it’s necessary.”

Mary Margaret took a sharp inhale and looked at the brunette horrifically 

“The alternative would’ve been a catastrophe. They were dying out.”

Regina gawked at Mary Margaret silently challenging her until David cut in.

“So what exactly are you two here for?”

Regina answered David, but still fixated on his wife.

“Two of your ADIs are involved in unexplainable deaths.”

David and Mary Margaret looked at each other.

“I’m sorry, a- a death.”

Emma cut in and leaned closer to him.

“Two actually. We need you to look at the ADIs and confirm if they’re your company’s or not.”

“Yes-yes of course, right this way.”

David was looking closely at the ADI and confirmed that these two were ones from their company. 

“Mr. Nolan is there anyway someone can hack into their system and control them without you knowing?”

David shook his head.

“No, they’re encrypted with military software, it’s nearly impossible-”

Emma cut in.

“Nearly impossible still sounds like possible to me.”

Regina looked over at the blonde and smirked at her.

David led them to a huge computer room with about a dozen computers each with thousands of soft green blinking lights on their screens.

“This is every hive we have online in the northeast, all the way from Pennsylvania to Maine. There are headquarters located all around the United States.”

Regina looked around at the hundreds of blinking lights moving around on screen.

“It’s like air traffic control, how many bees to a hive?”

“Around four thousand.”

Regina nodded as Emma stepped forwards toward David.

“Is that the search input?”

David nodded as Emma began to insert a five digit code.

“Mallory Draco’s zip code.”

Regina was impressed, not only had she taken action and demanded respect from the Nolans, but she got her job done, and she did it well, a lick of pride and something else ran up Regina’s back as she watched her friend and colleague get the information they needed.

“You said these log in everything correct, so if one of the bees breaks or malfunctions this shows it?”

“Yes-”

“Can you look up what happened last Monday night, let’s say around seven.”

David entered in some codes and the group watched as a bee entered the Draco household and went offline, when Mallory died. 

“That’s strange.”

Regina stepped closer to David as she tried to understand what the man was talking about.

“What’s strange?”

“Well when an ADI crosses a jurisdiction line it normally goes over to the next hive, but this one didn’t, it says it had nothing to connect to, which is impossible.”

Emma and Regina looked at each other trying to fit together the puzzle pieces.

“Do you mean someone hacked into the drone and took over it, controlling it into the house?”

“I-I-I’m not sure, they shouldn’t be able to do that, they’d need an encrypted controller and the range on one of those is only about twenty feet.”

Emma typed in another zip code, the place where Jack Branon died.

“Enter in last night, same time as the Draco residence.”

They watched as the exact same thing happened at the same time just a different location. Emma and Regina looked at each other and recognize the pattern. Then they got a call from Detective Rogers and Regina stepped out of the room to answer while Emma continued asking questions and getting information they needed like past and present employees and anyone that had a grudge against the company, things Mary Margaret was happy to answer. Just then, Regina ran back inside.

“Emma, we should probably go.”

And with that, Regina walked out. The blonde told David to text her the list of people and hurriedly followed Regina out the door.

 

_ May 17th, 2:38PM,  _ _ Office of Detectives Regina Mills and Killian Rogers _

Earlier in Regina’s car, the two women were talking about why someone would want to kill people this way, there seemed to be much easier ways to commit a murder, but both understood that this way had no fingerprints, no mess to clean up, they were there without a trace. Regina had said something about the killer essentially wishing people dead and something in the blonde clicked as Regina parked the car and Emma ran inside and to her laptop, logging into twitter and looking at hashtags both Branon and Draco would have in common and she found a link, hashtag death to.

“Fuck. Regina! Come in here.”

Regina and Rogers walked towards the blonde and saw her, again, looking through twitter.

“Emma-”

“No just wait, look, Mallory Draco and Jack Branon, both were being kicked around on the Internet for hours right? But, in both cases, people were tweeting their photos captioned with this hashtag.”

“Like Jacinda did.”

“Hashtag Death To? What exactly does that mean?”

Killian was puzzled as to how any of this would link into their murders, people used hashtags all the time and they don’t mean anything. 

“Well I traced it back to a couple accounts, all with a bee as their avatar, they’re bots, they’re not real people, they were scheduled to tweet these out every couple hours. They’re like spam.”

Regina took a deep inhale and shut her eyes, Emma was right, it wasn’t just a simple murder.

“There’s more, each tweet was sent with an instruction video.”

Regina leaned forwards and saw the video.

“Game of Consequences? Play it.”

Emma clicked on the video as it started to load in a computer generated voice.

“Game of Consequences. One, pick a target. Two, post their name and photo with the hashtag ‘death to’. Three, most popular person with hashtag loses and gets eliminated after 5:00PM each day. Four, game resets at midnight.”

The trio was speechless, Emma looked up at Regina and saw the brown eyes looking back at her, tears beginning to spring up in them. 

“Someone is holding a public ballot and killing off the top person, that’s sickening. It’s mad!”

“Yeah, and it’s growing, if you look at the analytics of the hashtag, on Monday, when Mallory died only seventy-four people used the hashtag, and then yesterday, when Jack died four hundred and ninety two people used the hashtag, and now there’s loads more, but currently there’s about nine hundred people using it for someone named Violet Colter, I don’t know her.”

Regina shook her head and looked at Killian and he just shrugged, none of them knew the girl. Emma googled her and found out that she went on vacation with some friends and ended up saying something against veterans and taking a photo that made it look like she was taking a piss on it.

“Oh my God Regina she’s only seventeen, she made a mistake and we only have a little more than two hours left.”

“People don’t know the hashtag actually kills her they’re just trying to scare her.”

“Yeah but they’re going to get her killed.”

Emma stood up and made her way towards a phone to try and locate Violet, and hopefully save her life. 

 

_ May 17th, 3:34PM, House of Violet Colter _

Regina knocked on the door of the dimly lit apartment hallway, Emma was looking towards her with fear in her eyes, they both needed to save this girl. 

“Hi Violet, my name is Regina Mills and this is my partner, Emma Swan, we need to take you to a safe house.

The girl stuttered over herself as she blinked rapidly, it was clear to both women she was terrified.

“A-a safehouse? Why am I in danger?”

“Yes, now pack a bag real quick, once you get outside we’re going to need you to run to the car.”

Violet packed what she needed and quickly followed the detectives outside and they all ran towards the car, about four other police cars were surrounding them and dozens of officers were surrounding her building with large guns and running around looking for something, or someone. They hopped into the car and almost as soon as the doors shut, they were off to an unknown location.

“How long will I have to stay here?”

“It’s just precautionary Violet, you’ll be safe tomorrow.”

The young girl nodded as she looked out the window.

 

_ May 17th, 6:44PM, A Safe House somewhere in New York _

Regina led Violet and Emma inside while Emma was on the phone talking to David about tracking any bees that come near their location. The trio walked up the stairs and placed their things in the two bedrooms, Violet taking the smaller room and Emma and Regina taking the master bedroom. Emma blushed at the thought of sharing a bed with Regina, but she couldn’t say she didn’t like the idea. 

“What side of the bed do you want?”

Regina looked up and shrugged, looking suddenly shy.

“What’s wrong?”

Regina mumbled something but Emma couldn’t quite hear here.

“What was that?”

“At home I normally sleep in the middle so it doesn’t matter.”

Emma smiled at her boss.

“Regina, do you like to cuddle?”

The brunette scoffed and assured that she did not like to do something so pathetic as cuddle. Then, Emma’s phone rang.

“David? What? A whole hive!? Dav- text it to me okay? I can’t- just text it to- David! Shit.”

“What-what is it?”

Emma was almost in tears.

“There’s a whole hive that went offline, they’re headed this way and he can’t stop them.”

Both women ran towards the windows and the front door, locking them and telling Violet to lock her own windows and go to their room. As the two women ran back of the stairs they found Violet staring at a large window in the master bedroom with about two hundred bees crawling all over it. The young girl was horrifed and Emma herself gasped in the face of the bees. She blindly reached for Regina’s hand. The buzzing of the bees got louder and louder as more of them began to circle the house trying to find a way in. “Violet run to the bathroom! No windows!”

Regina and Emma pushed the stunned girl into the bathroom and locked the door behind them. Soon enough, bees starting crawling in through the crack on the door and Emma ripped her jacket off and stuffed it under trying to close in any and every crack. Then the keyhole had a bee crawling through it and Regina shot her hand at it stopping it. The two women looked around and heard something crawling above them.

“Emma the vent! Close it!”

Emma hopped over there but not before a bee made its way inside and buzzed around Violet.

“Violet! Close your eyes and your mouth! Emma held her and closed her ears as Violet squirmed away from the bee, and soon about a dozen more had found their way in and Regina was trying to kill them by swatting at them and knocking over a couple of them. But neither of them covered her nose, and a bee found it’s way in, Violet began letting out an agonizing scream causing Emma to hold her closer as Violet began to foam at the mouth, blood was coming out of her nose and her ears, then her screams stopped and the bees flew out from a little hole next to the bathtub. 

“Violet?”

Emma was shaking, her voice very quiet and she began to shake the young girl.

“Violet, you can wake up now. Violet!”

Regina went over to the blonde and held her close as she began to shake and cry with the young girl’s dead body in her arms. 

They only had to wait a few mintues before police arrived on the scene and medical examiners pronounced Violet dead on arrival, both women already knew that, but hearing it made Emma break down all over again and Regina squeezed her hand and led her over to her car.

“It’s all my fault, I should’ve held her ears and nose and made her shut her mouth I could’ve stopped it and now she’s fucking dead, she’s was only seventeen, she was a fucking kid she had her whole life and this prick just-“

Regina listened to her tirade and began shouting her name until she couldn’t bare to listen to Emma berate herself and grabbed her by the shoulders and made the blonde look at her.

“It is not your fault. She wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth closed forever, we did the best we could, let’s just try and stop this from happening again, okay? Emma? Emma listen to me!”

Emma began to sob as Regina pulled her close and held the younger woman, really they held each other as Regina cried into the long blonde locks and Emma cried into her apple scented neck. 

“Come on Ems, let’s go home.”

Regina knew that Emma was in no condition to go home by herself tonight so she offered the shadow her couch, but as Regina helped Emma into the house, they both fell onto the couch and cried into each other. Emma gripped her fingers onto the older woman’s blouse as Regina tried to lull Emma to sleep. Eventually the younger woman’s crying had subsided and Regina didn’t have the heart to leave her alone, and she honestly didn’t think she would be able to sleep alone as well. Regina peppered kisses into Emma’s hair and wondered, for not the first time, if she was falling for the blonde and she finally had her answer and she was falling hard for her. 

Emma awoke about two hours later to the feeling of a warm breath on her neck, arms around her middle, and legs intertwined with her own and then she realized, Regina was holding her. Regina Mills, the woman she had the biggest crush on was holding her while she slept, and even through these tragic circumstances, Emma couldn’t help but smile, she had felt Regina kissing her hair and whispering soft words, and that’s when Emma knew she was falling in love with her boss. On some level, Emma had always known she’d fall for her, how could one not? But she thought it would just be a physical attraction for the woman, how her lips would feel on hers, and her nether regions, not what she looks like without makeup or how she not-so-secretly tries cuddle into her, she thought that Regina would be a good fuck, but now she wanted everything. Emma kissed her forehead down to her cheek and felt the brunette smile and hold her tighter. 

As Regina began to wake, her whiskey eyes met emerald ones that were shining with gratitude and-love? No it couldn’t be love Emma did not love her, did she?

Emma watched Regina’s eyes open and saw that they were full of love and then confusion and wonder, Emma wondered what was going on inside her boss’s head but knew she should get up so Regina could go to her own bed. 

“Emma dear, are you feeling any better?”

With that, Emma’s eyes began to fill with sadness again, but it was also mixed with determination as she vowed to not let another person die from this vile act again. 

“Yes, I’m just tired, I’m sorry I kinda slept on you, your neck must be all types of messed up.”

Regina shook her head and told her it was fine, but the blonde refused to let Regina shrug off something so easily fixed.

“I can massage it, if you want, I know you’ve been stressed and you’ve taken such good care of me. Let me return the favor, please.”

With that single word please, Regina’s heart melted and her walls were let down a little more as she agreed and took Emma’s hand and intertwined their fingers. Emma blushed, but her smile told Regina everything she needed to know. Regina led her upstairs into her bedroom, she hadn’t done this since, well since before Henry was born, she’s slept with people since, because she’s a woman with a risky job and she has needs, but she has never let anyone into her room. When she opened the door the blonde smiled at the photos gracing the back wall, most of them were of Henry, very few featured her and one featured a man who she assumed was Henry’s father considering they favored each other, especially in their noses. 

“That’s Daniel, Henry’s biological father.”

Emma frowned.

“The one who died before he was born.”

It wasn’t a question, Emma knew, she remembered Regina opening up to her and holding her hand, silently giving her strength. Still,  Regina smiled at her and continued to watch the blonde carefully.

Emma nodded as she smiled at the photo of Henry and Regina at what she can only assume is Henry’s first birthday, looking around there’s pictures of his kindergarten graduation, christmases, birthdays, and everything in between. Emma’s love for Regina grew with each picture she proudly displayed of her son. Emma looked at a photo of Regina and Henry, when he was maybe six or seven, playing in the sand smiling next to what Emma assumes is a beach. Henry is missing his two front teeth, and has a Popsicle in one had with the juice running down his arms, he’s smiling wide and slightly squinting from the harsh light. Regina has no makeup on and that nearly took the blonde’s breath away, she was absolutely stunning with makeup, there is no doubt, but Regina Mills with no makeup was a different kind of gorgeous. Her eyes shone with love towards Henry since she wasn’t looking at the camera but at her little boy, she was wearing a white, one piece swimsuit and smiling into the boy’s neck as he sat in her lap. They both seemed to be genuinely happy and it pained Emma to know that Regina hasn’t gotten to spend good quality time with her son for weeks. 

“Oh that photo, I look awful I have no makeup on and Popsicle juice was getting sticky on my arms, it was so hot that day and my hair was a mess and-“

“Regina if this is you looking like a mess you should look like a mess more often because the woman in this picture is breathtaking.”

Regina chuckled as she pulled the blonde towards her bed.

“Stop trying to flirt with me, you said you could massage my neck and I have yet to feel those fingers.”

Emma’s eyes bulged out of her head and her cheeks turned three shades darker as she realized Regina’s innuendo. She just wondered if it was intended or not. She pressed her fingers into the sides of the brunette’s neck and began to find knots all down her shoulder blades, she slowly kneaded her way through them and Regina softly moaned underneath her. As Emma started making her way down, the older woman took her shirt off and laid down with her back towards Emma so she could massage her a bit more. Emma had to will herself not to moan out loud as her boss’s silky skin was on full display. Emma felt her mouth go dry the second Regina reached behind her and undid her black satin bra and mumbled a “your hands” which made Emma nearly swoon on the spot. She continued her ministrations on Regina’s back until nearly all the knots were gone and then the woman began to sit up and it took every ounce of strength Emma had to not look at the topless goddess in front of her. Regina smiled at her chivalry and kissed the blonde on the cheek and thanked her, she retrieved a large t-shirt and stripped herself of her pants and handed Emma an extra shirt for her to wear. 

Emma stumbled out of the bed and tried not to trip over her own two feet as she had just saw Regina Mills nearly naked in front of her and had felt the woman’s lips against her cheek, while she didn’t have a shirt or bra on. 

“Emma where are you going?”

Emma looked around and then back at her feet and she softly told Regina back on the couch as to not disturb her any longer. Then Regina did something she didn’t think the brunette would ever do, she kissed her. Emma was shocked at first but then when her brain caught up she poured her soul into that kiss and soon they were tumbling onto Regina’s bed. Regina grabbed Emma’s hips and pulled them onto her. Emma plunged her hands into the brunette’s locks and slightly pulled at them, pleased to hear the soft groan that left Regina’s mouth. Then, Regina placed her knee in-between the blonde’s thighs and then it was Emma who was groaning which left the brunette with a lick of pride knowing that she was doing this to her. Their kisses heated up until Regina stopped them, with Emma’s hand up her shirt, making sure this is what the blonde wants, telling her that this has nothing to do with her job and if she wants to stop, it will have no effect on the placement of her occupation. Emma smiled down at the woman below her glad to know that Regina truly did care for her.

“Regina, I have feelings for you, strong ones. I want to do this, I want to make you feel good, if only for a couple hours.”

Regina felt her eyes getting misty and she knew she loved the blonde, but she felt as if it wasn’t the time to say that yet, so instead she just kissed her and hoped that Emma felt what she couldn’t say in that kiss. Emma responded immediately and began to kiss down the brunette’s neck and suck at her pulse point. Regina gasped and held the blonde there and let out a low hiss as she ground herself on Emma’s thigh. Emma felt Regina’s nipples poking through her rolling stone’s t-shirt and began to pinch one as she sucked on the other one. She heard Regina hum as she tangled her fingers into the blonde hair. 

“Take it off, please.”

Emma did as she was told and pulled Regina’s shirt off of her and then slid her tongue inside Regina’s mouth. She wasn’t sure who moaned, honestly she didn’t care, she then took the dusty pink nipple into her mouth and knew she could probably get herself off just by doing this, hearing Regina writhe and moan underneath her, it was addicting. She continued lapping and then moved onto the neglected nipple until Regina pushed her head farther down and held Emma’s head between her thighs.

“Emma please, I need you.”

How could Emma say no? She slowly licked between Regina’s sodden underwear and then pulled them down with her teeth.

“You tease.” 

Regina huffed and Emma softly chuckled as she tossed the likely ruined underwear somewhere behind her. She blew cold air onto the wet folds and the brunette arched back in a high pitched gasp. 

“Emma please don’t tease me.”

Finally, Emma entered one finger into Regina and she was met with warm velvet walls that were tight around her finger. She began to lick at her clit and was instantly flooded with what she could only describe as Regina, and oh how she fell in love with the taste, it was a spicy sweet flavor, nothing like she had ever tasted before and if she ever had a last meal, Regina Mills would be it. Emma groaned into the other woman and continued lapping at her and picking up speed, she inserted a second finger and was rewarded with a “Emma yes” which launched the blonde onto cloud nine. She found the perfect rhythm and inserted a third finger which had the brunette nearly howling and holding the blonde closer to her. Emma could hear Regina calling her name and chanting “yes” and “don’t stop” it only spurred the blonde on more as finally she felt the brunette’s walls flutter around her and went to swallow everything the brunette gave her. She tasted glorious and she could have sworn she got drunk off her. Regina started pulling the blonde up and kissed her hard, tasting herself on the other woman’s tongue and moaning at the mixture. Emma looked directly into the brunette’s eyes and then sucked the fingers that had been inside her into her mouth which made Regina throb all over again. Emma smiled as Regina flipped them over and planned on doing the very same thing to her.

 

_ May 18th, 6:13AM, Apartment of Regina Mills _

Emma woke up first to Regina in her arms. The brunette had one leg draped over her thigh and was nuzzling the right side of her neck. One of her tan arms were caught underneath Emma and the other rested between the blonde’s breasts, right next to her heart. Emma kissed the older woman and saw the sweet smile appear on her lips.

“Morning R’Gina”

Regina groaned and snuggled into the blonde further. 

“Nooooooo I’m too tired, you didn’t let me sleep last night.”

Emma chuckled as she pulled the brunette closer and kissed the tip of her nose.

“Come on sleepy head, it’s nearly five and we both need to shower before we head out.”

Regina sat up and threw her leg over the blonde and began to straddle her. Emma ran her hands up and down the other woman’s thighs. 

“What if, we took a shower together? You know, to save time and water, save the whales and everything.”

Regina was smirking and peppered kisses to Emma’s face as the blonde laughed at her. 

“Why Detective Mills, are you trying to seduce me?”

Regina nipped Emma’s ear and then whispered into it.

“I think I’ve already seduced you dear, let’s have a check.”

Regina slid her hand down the blonde’s body and found that, yes, the woman was indeed wet for her. Emma gasped as she kissed the brunette and Regina hopped off of her and sashayed her way into the bathroom. 

“You can join me if you’d like, it would certainly be more fun that way.”

She tried to wink but ended up failing, miserably, which just made the blonde fall for her even harder. She hopped out of bed quickly, following her lover into the bathroom. 

 

Thirty minutes later, Regina was telling Emma all about Henry, and she realized they had a lot in common. They both loved comic books, The Incredible Hulk was their favorite superhero, but they also loved Storm from X-Men for her wits, each of them loved cinnamon on their hot chocolate, their favorite cereal was Berry Cap’n Crunch and both of them loved to spend time with a brunette named Regina Mills. Regina kissed the blonde’s nose and told her not to worry, that Henry would absolutely love her just by the fact that she was so animatedly in love with the Marvel universe. Emma took the other woman’s hand and kissed her knuckles which made the brunette smile at her warmly, they walked hand-in-hand downstairs to prepare breakfast to the little boy who would no doubly ask Emma a load of questions. 

 

As expected, Henry was shocked to see someone else besides himself and his mother in their apartment this morning, but once he began to talk to Emma and realized she was a lot cooler than he first expected, things ran smoothly for the girlfriend-son duo. Wait, was she Regina’s girlfriend now? Emma hated that word, it made them sound like they were thirteen year olds in middle school giggling and passing notes in class, what she felt for Regina was stronger than anything she had ever felt before. Emma looked up and found Regina staring at her with so much love and warmth in her eyes it nearly knocked the blonde woman over entirely. She shyly smiled at the woman and continued talking with Henry who was quickly stealing her heart as fast as his mother. They each were laughing at something Regina didn’t quite understand, something about an infinity war and people who died in it, she wasn’t quite sure but she knew she was in love with the smiles and laughs of her son and- girlfriend? Regina knew that as soon as her son let her have Emma back, she and the blonde needed to talk about titles and what exactly they were. She knew they were more than just friends-with-benefits by the way she looks at her, she wouldn’t just let any person into her bedroom or her son’s life. 

 

Eventually, Emma excused herself to use the restroom which gave Henry the chance to tell his mother how he felt about the blonde. 

“She likes you doesn’t she Mom. And you like her back.”

Regina blushed as she softly nodded and told her son that she did in fact like the blonde. 

“Oh but Henry if you don’t like her she can leave. You’ll always be the most important person in my life.”

Henry hugged his mom and told her to relax, he liked her. She was funny, and he wasn’t blind, he could see the way they looked at each other and his mother’s soft smiles she only seemed to show him, but now with Emma Swan. He may not know his mother’s ‘friend’  very well, but he could tell she was a genuine person and that’s all he could want for his mom. Regina pulled Henry into a tight squeeze and the boy laughed and told her he was going to be late for school if she didn’t let him leave. Regina kissed her son’s forehead as Emma hopped down the last stair.

“Henry when you get home from school I want to show you my comic books and we can compare ours to see how many we have between us. Cool?”

Henry practically leaped into the air and yelled back told her that would be awesome as he ran out to catch the bus. Regina walked over to Emma and wrapped her arms around her middle and smiled up at her. 

“You didn’t have to do that you know.”

Emma furrowed her eyebrows together as she looked down at the detective.

“Are you kidding me? I love comics and if we can share some to read more why wouldn’t I? Plus he’s actually a really smart kid! Oh that came out wrong I didn’t mean it like that I just meant that he seems advanced for his age- god that came out wrong too-”

Regina kissed the blonde and smiled into her mouth, gently sucking on the blonde’s lower lip. 

“I get it Emma, and yes he is very advanced for a twelve year old boy. Thank you for being like this around him. I know kids normally mean an end-”

Emma cupped Regina’s face as she made sure the brunette was looking into her eyes.

“No ending here, I meant what I said last night, I want to do this.”

Regina pressed her lips onto Emma’s and they softly moaned into each other’s mouths, this wasn’t a kiss about dominance or power, it was pure, unadulterated love with a dash of lust. The pair of women’s eyes were shining as they broke apart, Regina led Emma to the couch just so they could talk and make sure they were on the same page. 

“Emma, if we decide to pursue a relationship, we can’t hide it. I don’t  _ want _ to hide it. We’ll have to tell Gold, there are no rules saying that we can’t date, but, we can’t be partners.”

“Wait we can’t be partners, but I thought that after I was done being your shadow and learning everything we’d be equals and we’d work and solve cases together.”

Regina slowly shook her head and hung it down. She loved working with the blonde, they balanced each other well, Emma brought a fresh, new eye to the case and offered perspectives the brunette would’ve never thought of while Regina made sure that the blonde kept her head on straight since she had a knack of thinking of impossible scenarios. It was a yin-yang relationship that they both had thrived in. 

“Where would I go? They wouldn’t transfer me anywhere else, would they?”

Emma was slowly starting to panic, she liked the brunette, maybe even loved her, but this is the rest of her life she’s deciding, she doesn’t want to stop working with Regina, but she doesn’t want to break off a wonderful relationship before it even starts, even if she were to break it off, she wouldn’t be able to see Regina every day and get over her, it seemed as if there was only one option and it wasn’t going to be fun. 

“Can we-can we finish this last case together though? I can be professional, I just need to see this through.”

Regina kissed Emma’s head and told her of course they could finish, Regina had no plans on updating anyone else on their case, this was how they met, this was how they got close to each other and how they inevitably got together, they were going to see it to the end and no one would separate them from that. Emma snuggled into Regina and wrapped her limbs around the other woman’s body. Regina raked her nails along the blonde’s scalp and could feel the younger woman purring against her chest. After a few minutes of just laying next to each other, Emma felt the courage to open herself up a little more to the brunette.

“You know, I’ve never felt like this with anyone. I mean there was Neal, he was the first guy I ever had genuine feelings for, but we never had this. I never felt so content just lying next to him, it scares me how much I care about you.”

“Why does it scare you dear?”

Regina made sure to keep her hands on the blonde to keep this energy together, she didn’t want to break the connection they had and she didn’t want the strength Emma had to weaken.

“I’m scared you’ll leave, everyone leaves, my parents abandoned me on the side of a road, I was almost adopted once, and then they had their own kid so I wasn’t good enough”

Regina almost stopped her right there to tell her she is more than enough, but knew the blonde needed to let everything out so she kept her lips closed.

“And after that I was passed on from foster home to foster home until I met Neal, and he told me all the right things and then he left me too. Every person in my life that was supposed to be there for me, left, they didn’t love me and they broke their promises. They promised to love me forever and in the end they hurt me the most. I never felt like I belonged anywhere, not until I met you and that terrifies me.”

Regina had to stop herself from crying, she loved this woman and the mere thought that this beautiful wonderful woman thought she wasn’t good enough broke her.

“Emma Swan. You are more than enough. Those people that hurt you, your birth parents, Neal, the people who were supposed to look out for you, they messed up. You, Miss Swan, you are amazing, you are kind despite the kindness never shown to you, you are brave yet vulnerable and I admire you for it. 

Regina took Emma’s face in her hands and wiped the tears off of her cheeks, she softly kissed the younger woman’s nose which made them each giggle until Regina laid them down and they traded soft kisses.

 

_ August 22nd, 10:02AM, New York Supreme Court  _

“Take your time Detective Mills.”

Regina took a steadying breath, remembering Emma and having a bittersweet smile on her face, oh how she wished the blonde was sitting next to her with and dopey grin on her face, holding her hand, giving her strength, but she had to go on. 

“I had seen plenty of dead bodies before, I mean that’s what I do for a living, but I had never seen anyone die, she was right there and she was so young.”

Regina stiffened in her seat and told herself to calm down. 

“And what can you tell us about your colleague, Miss Swan.”

Regina nodded, remembering the look of pure sadness in the blonde’s eyes.

“Emma took it hard. She-she cried all night.”

 

_ May 18th, 8:15AM,  _ _ Office of Detectives Regina Mills and Killian Rogers _

“We thought this was one guy controlling one ADI less than twenty feet away, but this guy is some computer mastermind because he was easily controlling thousands of bees last night and nowhere to be found.”

Emma sat there silently, numbly, listening as the head of FBI, Robert Gold, informed them that news got out that the bees are killing people due to the hashtag and that the president is now the number one target. Regina continued her tirade of questioning David.

“How did the bees know to go after Violet?”

“I told you, it has a sensor.”

“No, Emma and I were in the room as well, and they only went after her. It has to be a camera, it has facial recognition doesn’t it.”

Mr. Gold piped in at that moment and told Regina that that information was classified.

“So Emma was right, there is some sort of conspiracy around this, the government is watching all of us through these little ADIs and now it’s getting people killed. And you knew this entire time, this could’ve helped us.”

“These ‘little ADIs’ have stopped mass shootings, terrorists, bombings, they’ve saved more than they’ve hurt.”

“Violet Colter isn’t safe, is she. She’s dead because you chose to withhold information that could have saved her life.”

Regina rolled her eyes. Emma was biting her nails and not really paying attention to any of them. Mr. Gold told them that the president wants to shut down the whole system when David perorated that shutting down the project would be an environmental catastrophe. The two men bickered while Emma continued to sit there quietly, Regina watching her girlfriend slowly slip into madness, not knowing how to stop it. 

“What if we stop the guy before we have to shut the bees down?”

Everyone looked at Emma.

“I’m serious, the president won’t die, the bees get to continue helping our environment, and we catch our bad guy. It’s a win-win, well for everyone except the low-life who does this.”

David and Regina nodded while Mr. Gold stared down Emma. 

“Miss Swan how exactly do you think you are going to be able to stop him, hm? You haven’t done so yet.”

Regina felt the blood in her boil as she fixated a cold stare onto the older man. 

“With all due respect Mr. Gold, it’s not my job right now to keep the president safe, that’s your job, my job is to find the guy and arrest him along with Detective Mills and Rogers.”

Mr. Gold stepped towards the young woman and looked at her up and down, seemingly sizing her up. 

“You have eight hours, if you haven’t found and stopped him by then, we shut this whole project down.”

Mr. Gold limped out of the room and Emma hopped up going to her computer trying to find anything that can help them with this case. Detective Rogers walked in giving Regina information on ex-employees that may have something against the company.

“I’ve filed a list of POIs that have the IQ that would fit with our guy.”

 

“Emma dear, it’s two o’clock, Mr. Gold will be here in a couple hours.”

Emma groaned, she had been working non-stop for hours, going over POIs and interviewing people, but nothing seemed quite right.

“Is Trump still number one in the hit list?”

Regina nodded. Rogers came walking towards the pair and informed them that he think he may have found someone, a woman by the name of Belle French, she was riding the subway one day when a man made lewd comments towards her, she took a picture of him but then it turned out that he had a learning disability and she got loads of hate on social media for it. 

“Emma, I’ll be right back, do you want to interview her with me or stay here?”

Rogers noticed something different between the women, Regina was kinder to her, softer almost, he assumed it probably had something to do with the fact that Emma watched a young girl die and now the pair were closer for it. A sick event, but one that solidified their friendship. Emma told Regina to go ahead, she was going to keep going through the files on the ADI and see if there was a folder or something she missed. 

 

Regina walked into the room where they were holding Belle, she was a shorter woman with brunette-blonde hair and striking blue eyes, she had a thick Australian accent and seemed very shy. 

“Hi Miss French, my name is Regina Mills I’m here to ask you some questions, is that all right?”

Belle nodded as they sat down and Belle encountered all the internet hate she got, how it all went to her head and how she felt like a million people hated her and wanted her dead.

“Five years ago, I tried to take my own life, all the hate it got to me, and I truly felt I would be better off by not being here, but then Gideon found me, he’s my little brother, but I essentially raised him. He pulled me out of the tub and stayed with me at the hospital. Deadbeat parents, ya know?”

Regina nodded and made a mental note to hug her son a little tighter when she got home that night. 

“He was always so protective of me, and we worked in the same place so he always made sure I was safe, I love him more than anyone, but he’s a bit weird. He didn’t have my parents and I think he always blamed himself for what I almost did.”

Regina leaned forward and asked if she had heard from Gideon recently and Belle shook her head, telling her that he told her he needed to find himself and she hadn’t heard from him in a couple of months. Regina thanked Belle and went out to find Emma and Rogers.

“I need the whereabouts of Gideon French.”

Emma looked at her shocked.

“I was just about to come tell you that, I found a file in the ADI, a ninety-eight page manifesto called ‘The Teeth of Consequence’ and while I didn’t have time to read the full thing, I could pick up on the meaning. The entire thing is about how he hates the internet and how technology brings out the worst in people, but look, he has a picture of himself on the back of the cover. We got him Regina.”

Regina looked over at a smiling Emma.

“Good job Swan.”

She squeezed her arm and Emma blushed, glad to receive praise for her findings.

“He goes on to compare the human race to insects, saying that we revel in cruelty and that it needs to be breed out of us.” 

“It’s sick is what it is. Is it all like this?”

Regina had a look of disgust on her face as she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. 

“The recurrent theme is he wants people to face the consequences what people say and do, no matter what platform it’s on.”

Regina clicked through pages and looked up at the blonde.

“So this whole thing is a moral lesson?”

Regina kept finding diagrams and pictures.

“He wanted us to find this, to spread around. Screw him.”

While Emma and Regina were looking through the pages of the manifesto, Rogers got on his computer and used the hashtag and the photo on the back of the manifesto to scare Gideon. Meanwhile, Emma had a realization, all the photos in the manifesto were used with clipped art, so it couldn’t be traced, except for the photo on the back, it’s of himself, so she can find an exact location on him.

“Regina. Regina he’s messed up.”

She explained her thought process on the whole thing and typed in the information into a database and got the coordinates, Gideon French is less than a mile away from the Granular Project site. 

 

Emma, Regina, Mr. Gold, and a SWAT team arrive at the location they believe Gideon French is and storm in, you can hear shoutings of officers yelling inside the house, each of them eventually yelling clear. The devastation on Regina and Emma’s faces meant they knew they were out of options, and that they would need to shut the bees down in order to save the citizens from harming themselves further. 

“Wait let me look around first, he may have left something.” 

Emma looked around the room and Regina joined her.

“What exactly are we looking for?”

Emma huffed and told her something that a disc or a hardrive, a key or a piece of paper anything.

“Wait, I think I’ve got something.”

Emma held a flashdrive in her hand and told Regina this is what she needs, it’s her next clue and she can find him with this. 

 

_ May 18th, 4:57PM, The Granular Project Location Site _

“This doesn’t seem to be our guy, he wouldn’t just leave a key for us to stop him, he’s much smarter than that.”

Emma looked up at the brunette, she knew she was right, but each time she found a piece to this puzzle she had to keep going. It’s like she was following his breadcrumbs and after each one she knew she was that much closer to nailing the bastard, but this was too simple for the complex killer. Emma kept looking through files and found one she hadn’t seen before, she opened it and froze immediately.

“Emma? Emma what is it?”

“I think these are a bunch of IMEI numbers.”

Regina was confused but by the look on Emma’s face, she knew that wasn’t a good thing and she quickly began to panic. 

“Every device has a unique IMEI number, it tracks who owns what, I can reverse target this, find out the names to see who they are.”

Emma typed in some keywords and saw the names.

“Who are these people?”

Emma shook her head trying to wrap her head around the situation.

“I don’t know but there’s a hundred sixty-five million of them.”

At that moment Emma’s blood froze and she felt like she was going to vomit.

“Regina what was the name of that teacher, ‘hate cake’”.

“Jacinda Glass”

Emma typed in the name and saw the woman’s name pop up.

“Oh my God. He’s collected everyone who’s taken part in the hashtag.”

David looked over at Emma and Regina walked closer, a sinking feeling residing in her stomach. 

“Why would he need the names of everyone who used the hashtag?”

David announced that he was ready to shut down all the bees when Emma told him not to. Mr. Gold slammed his hand down on the desk affectively gathering the attention in everyone in the room. 

“Like hell he can’t, this is a national security, if we don’t, the President of the United States dies and that is not something you want to be part of Miss Swan.”

Emma huffed as she surged up and got in Mr. Gold’s face.

“No Mr. Gold, think, Gideon left too many clues, the flashdrive, the location on the photo, the manifesto, it’s too much, he’s too smart to just leave that for us to find.”

Regina gasped as she realized what was going on.

“He knew we’d find all this and that we’d follow the trail, he knew we’d do everything. These names, what if they die next. It’s the game of consequences and everyone here made a choice and now they’re going to die because of them. The players are the real target.”

Killian sat down as all the color drained from his face. Regina looked over at him.

“What’s wrong?”

Killian ran his hand across his face.

“I used the hashtag on Gideon, to scare him, to let him know we were going to find him.”

Regina looked at her friend, shocked, if this were true, Rogers will die.

“Mr. Nolan, in the name of the president, I need you to shut it down.”

Everyone shouted at David and Mr. Gold to not to, that it would kill millions, but Mr. Gold clicked the button anyways. The computer started to beep and load the process as Regina stood their shocked, Emma could no longer feel her legs. The lights on the computer beeped back to green and David announced they were back in control, Mr. Gold laughed and Regina exhaled. The nightmare was over. All they needed to do was find Gideon and it was done, they were in control and no one was dying that day. 

“No, no no no no no.”

“Oh my god.”

Emma let out a sob as she grabbed onto Regina’s hand. The once green lights were now red, indicating that they were no longer in control of the ADIs. Gideon had control over them all. They all watched in horror as the red lights began to decrease, knowing that meant another citizen died. Then, Killian began to scream as one of the bees entered his brain, Emma and Regina watched their friend die as they sat next to him crying.

 

_ August 22, 9:40AM, New York Supreme Court _

“Unfortunately, Miss Mills, we’re aware of the tragedy that occured after this.”

Regina nodded as she tried to keep the tears at bay. 

“And of Miss Swan, what happened to her.”

At the mention of Emma’s name, Regina broke down. She could no longer contain the sobs racking through her body as she shook uncontrollably.

“She thought it was her fault. I tried reaching out ot her the months after it happened but she was distant and would no longer let me in. They found her shoes and her clothes next to the ocean.”

The courtroom went silent, all that was heard was Regina’s breath hitching as she tried to suck in oxygen.

“She killed herself, didn’t she.”

It wasn’t a question, but Regina shook her head anyway and with each nod, another crack appeared on her heart. 

“The people of the United States send our condolences to your family for the loss of your friend. Thank you for services.”

Regina stood on her feet and kept her head held high as she was escorted out of the courtroom into a black SUV waiting outside for her. There were mobs of people waiting outside, shouting at her begging for answers over what happened to their loved ones. People shouting at her and calling her a monster, calling her evil, saying that she’s responsible, she just kept her head high and thought about holding her son. 

As Regina clicked her seatbelt on, she heard her phone ping with a new message from an unknown number. 

_ Got him. -E _

Regina gasped and held her hand over her mouth, this couldn’t be Emma, she’s dead. They had a funeral for her, she  _ buried _ her, with an empty casket, but buried her nonetheless. Regina blinked through glassy eyes as she responded to the mystery contact.

_ Who is this? _

She waited about two minutes before she got a reply that turned her world upside down.

_ Emma. _

 

_ August 24th, 7:23AM, John F. Kennedy Airport _

Regina was looking at the arrival board and saw that Emma’s plane should be arriving on time which was approximately three minutes from now. She was a wreck, Emma had been gone for months, she had no idea that she was alive or why she didn’t contact her at all just to let her know she was okay. She was ecstatic, terrified, and livid. Ecstatic to see the love of her life again, terrified that this was all some sort of dream, and livid because if it wasn’t, she’d kill Emma herself. Regina stalked over to the baggage claim and waited to see long blonde curls and pale skin bounce over to her, but instead, she saw short wavy locks and sun kissed skin quietly make their entrance. The sight of her made Regina start crying, then their eyes meet and Emma gives her that soft, shy smile she gave her the night they met and Regina walks straight up to her and pulls her into her body to which Emma immediately responds back with her own fierce hug. 

“I thought you were dead.”

Emma hugged her even tighter and apologized and said she wanted to keep her safe, she wanted to keep Henry safe and knew that the brunette wouldn’t want her to go alone but Henry needed her, he witnessed people die and he needed the comfort of his mother. Regina shook her head and just kissed her, in the middle of an airport. They were safe, they were together, they survived. 

“I missed you Emma, I missed you so much.”

Regina could barely breathe, and Emma felt the same way she choked back her sobs and just held the brunette in her arms, she kissed her hair and the side of her head as her love listened to her heartbeat, no doubt reassuring herself that Emma was here, that she was real. 

“I know, but I’m here now, this is real, I’m never going to leave you again. And I love you.”

Regina sucked in a breath and looked up into emerald eyes.

“I love you too.”

Emma smiled, almost in disbelief.

“Yeah?”

Regina nodded as she crushed the blonde in another embrace, neither wanting to let go of the other. 

 

_ March 23rd, 3:47PM, A small Venue near Virginia  _

Emma and Regina were holding hands as they made sure each and every table looked perfect, the guests would be arriving around five thirty for the ceremony and then the rest of their lives would begin. On Thanksgiving day the year before, Emma Swan had popped the question and asked Regina Mills to marry her and with glassy eyes and a sure heart, she accepted and the two decided that they wanted a small wedding with some of their closest family and friends to celebrate with them. Henry, a now thirteen year old teenager, was about to start high school and was thrilled that his mom had finally found love again. He and Emma grew closer and while he didn’t exactly see her as a “Mother Figure”, he was able to confide in her about things he was too embarrassed about to speak with his mother and Emma answered honestly and told him that whatever secrets he wanted to remain private would remain just that. Regina’s heart grew knowing that her son trusted Emma as much as he did, she couldn’t ask for a better partner, lover, or friend, she wasn’t sure how she got so lucky to find Emma, but she was damn sure to never let her go again. 

At six o’clock sharp, Emma and Regina were standing next to each other speaking their vows, promises to love one another through anything, commitments to always be honest no matter what, and a guarantee to remember how they felt in this very moment, looking into each other’s eyes and remembering all the pain and heartbreak it took to get them here and vowing to honor those sacrifices with a loving marriage. Emerald eyes locked with whiskey ones as their lips met for this first time as wife and wife. Regina smiled into the kiss and Emma giggled knowing that this was her future. She was no longer an orphan. She was somebody’s wife, step-mother, friend, confidant, partner, and above all else, she was her own savior. Regina may have helped her find her own family, but she saved herself, and that was more powerful than anything.


End file.
